All posts tagged recipe

The Weirdest Diwali…

Happy Diwali !!!

Well, belated, at least.

Now, this is another festival Indians go crazy about.

Fire crackers, sweets, gifts (oh yeah!), dry fruits, rangoli, new clothes (yet again!) and more sweets! Plus, Bengalis have their Kali Puja the very next day. So we just have to let go of watching our blood sugar levels for the two days.

It’ll be difficult for anyone to find a town, city, suburb or countryside free of noise, colors, light, fumes from the fireworks or plates and plates of badam burfi piled high.

Indians don’t celebrate with food – they celebrate food itself.

Every festival in India is always up for a million dollops of pure ghee, barrels of molasses, milk by the gallons, saffron by the fistfuls, nuts and fruits by the kilos. Some of the concoctions melt in your mouth, some fill you up with the first serving, some you get addicted to, some taste strange, some reminds you of something ancient and historical, some burst with flavor, others are subtly strong – but all of them make your mouth water, frankly.

This year was slightly different for me. Well OK, a lot different.

Firstly, it rained cats and dogs day before yesterday, which was a mood-killer. The dampness not only affects the performance of the crackers (obviously), but it dampened all our spirits. The fireworks industry in India is massive. And for a day the dealers sat with their hands holding up their heads!

Secondly, I cut down on the amount of crackers.

Well, because after 20 years of experiencing fascination and borderline obsession with fireworks, I got bored this year…much to the surprise and shock of my family and friends.

Thirdly, because I made sweets. And not the traditional burfi or kheer or halwa. But, I made truffles.

Yes, you read that right. Truffles.

Gorgeous dark chocolatey, walnutty ones.

All for a mid-morning coffee snack! And for two very special gift-packages. Recipes are right at the end of this post.

Evening was spent lighting lamps and diyas all throughout the house. And the rest of it was spent inhaling the fumes of burning nitrates and carbonates!

Anyway, back to the aforementioned truffles. I’ve been obsessed with them since……well, since Sunday. That’s when we were gifted this gorgeous box of six sinfully chocolicious rum and brandy truffles! Too bad, none was left to photograph. So, I made some of my own with walnuts, considering the fact that we have a whole kilo of walnuts leftover from when I made cookies a week back.

Chocolate Truffles rolled in Walnuts:

- 250gms of dark chocolate (I used one with 60% cocoa content)

- 150ml of heavy cream

- Walnuts, roasted and chopped coarsely

Chop up the chocolate in shards and chunks and put all of it in a bowl. Heat the cream till it reaches its boiling point. Be careful not to let the cream boil over, at this point. Pour it over the chopped chocolate and let stand for a minute. With a whisk or a wooden spoon start stirring the cream-chocolate mixture, from the center towards the sides of the bowl. Mix thoroughly till all the chocolate has melted. We don’t want any streaks of cream either. What you have now, is chocolate ganache. Pour in a shallow bowl/tin lined with aluminum foil and chill in the freezer for 2-3 hours or till a tablespoon of it can be rolled into a ball.

After the ganache has set, spread the chopped walnuts on a plate. With a teaspoon (or one of those rare melon scoopers, if you have any) scoop out some and start rolling into a ball. The consistency of the chocolate at this point should be such, so it doesn’t stick to your palms much. Roll the balls in the chopped walnuts till they’re coated evenly and pop all of ‘em into the freezer again for about an hour before trying any.

Walnut Rock Truffles with extra crunch!

- 125gms of dark chocolate

- Half a cup of roasted walnuts, chopped

- 6 tablespoons of granulated white sugar

- 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter

- 1 egg white

- 2-3 drops of vanilla essence

Chop the chocolate. Add butter to it and melt on a double-boiler. Meanwhile, combine the walnuts and sugar in a bowl. Start adding the egg white to the mixture slowly to make a dough. You won’t be needing all of the egg, since we want the “dough” to be sticky and disintegrated. Take the chocolate off the heat and add the vanilla essence. Now, my essence was too strong for my taste, thats why I only used a few drops. Go ahead and add a few drops more, if yours is milder. Add this melted chocolate to the “dough” and mix well. Pour (or spoon, rather) it onto a plate lined with aluminum foil and chill in the freezer for 2-3 hours or till you can cut it into pieces.

The extra chocolate shards and curls that were leftover…I just added ‘em to my coffee.

All in all, this year Diwali, was kinda weird……

7 Comments

by Amrita on October 29, 2008 • Permalink

Posted in Chocolate, Desserts, Food & Drink, Photography

Posted by Amrita on October 29, 2008

http://amritac.wordpress.com/2008/10/29/the-weirdest-diwali/

Cookies and Bandhani

I’ve been obsessed with my mother’s closet since I don’t remember when.

Its weird if you think about it – I’m a full-grown twenty-three (almost twenty-four) year old woman who can cook and housekeep like an expert (at least, by now I can), but I still cannot resist rummaging through my Mum’s dressing table or try on her saris, whenever I get a chance.

I know, I need help.

Anyway, while my dark chocolate & walnut cookies were baking, I pulled out all Ma’s old dupattas. Cottons, silks, chiffons, crepes, lace and what not…she even had one in a ‘fishnetty’ lycra material.

OK.

Most of them have faded and some have huge holes in them and some are torn in half, literally. But what caught my eye was this hot pink bandhani-work dupatta, which was surprisingly intact, kept twisted properly and not the slightest bit faded. The color just popped and said “HI!” to me!

For all who’re wondering what on earth is “bandhani” – bandhani work is a type of tie-dyeing art particular to Gujarat and Rajasthan, India.

As for the cookies – well, they’ve got chocolate, walnuts and honey in them.

What You Need -

- 1 and a half cups regular, all-purpose flour

- 3/4 cup dark cocoa powder (Dutch is preferable, but any good quality cocoa powder would do)

- Half cup of walnuts, chopped coarsely

- 1 teaspoon salt

- 3/4 tsp baking soda

- 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar

- 3 tablespoons of honey

- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

- 2 large eggs

How-To:

- Preheat the oven to 375 F. Prepare cookie sheets.

-Sift the flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda together.

- Cream the butter with sugar till smooth and fluffy.

- Add the eggs one at a time beating continuously. Add the vanilla essence and honey.

- Add in the dry ingredients an stir to make a creamy batter.

- Add in the chopped walnuts and mix well.

- Spoon out the batter (1 tablespoon for each cookie) onto the sheets leaving enough gap between each lump.

- Bake the cookies for 10-15 minutes. Cool the cookies on cooling racks and serve with…uh milk? I prefer vanilla ice-cream though.

2 Comments

by Amrita on October 22, 2008 • Permalink

Posted in Chocolate, Desserts, Food & Drink

Tagged artwork, bake, baking, baking cookies, bandhani, biscuits, chocolate cookies, chocolates, chocolaty, colorful, colors, cook, cookies, cookies and milk, dark chocolate, dessert, dupatta, dye, fashion, Gujarat, honey, hot pink, India, Indian, Rajasthan, recipe, recipes, sweet, tie, tie-n-dye, walnut cookies, walnuts

Posted by Amrita on October 22, 2008

http://amritac.wordpress.com/2008/10/22/cookies-and-bandhani/

My Get-Well Food

Its been a long week. The flu did not worsen like I had thought it would, thankfully. The cold is still giving me a hard time though. The good thing that has come out of all this is, I have had about 16 cups of yellow lentil soup soup with two dozen pieces of mini-naan over the span of the last seven days. No, seriously.

I remember, Amanda’s (from Konosur) comment on the stuffed peppers, about an Indian flat bread or naan recipe. I guess I was waiting for a bout of influenza to finally get off my bum to blog about it.

The naan has Central Asian origins, resembles a pita but softer, in India its a North Indian staple.

Naan (makes one large or 4 bite-sized ones):

- Half cup plain white flour

- Half a teaspoon baking powder

- 1 teaspoon of sugar (naan is more sweet than savory)

- A pinch of salt

- 1 tablespoon white oil

- 2 tablespoons of milk

- 1 egg, beaten

- Chopped parsley, or chopped coriander, or sesame seeds or nigella seeds

Pre-heat the oven to maximum heat. Sift the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt together. Mix the oil, milk and half the beaten egg well and add this to the flour mixture. Pour this into the center of the flour and knead adding water if necessary to form soft dough. Grease a bowl with a few drops of oil and roll the dough around in it. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and let rest in a cool corner for about half an hour. Roll out the dough in an elliptical shape. Stud the surface with the coriander/parsley/nigella seeds/sesame seeds. Brush the top lightly with the remaining egg. Prepare the baking tray and bake for about 10 minutes or till the naan’s puffed up and golden brown. Serve with a hot lentil soup.

11 Comments

by Amrita on October 3, 2008 • Permalink

Posted in Around the World, Baking, Vegetarian

Tagged Bengali, coriander, daal, dal, food, food daal, foods, Indian flat bread, Indian food, Indian recipes, lentil soup, mung beans, naan, nan, nigella seeds, North Indian recipes, parsley, pita bread, recipe, recipes, rotis, yellow beans, yellow soup

Posted by Amrita on October 3, 2008

http://amritac.wordpress.com/2008/10/03/my-get-well-food/

Pears for Autumn

Late September and its already impossible to walk down the pedestrian pathway without ending up with leaves on your shoulders. I can literally smell the fumes emanating from the dhunuchi and the air is filled with sound of a dhak playing…radio stations trying to get everyone into the Durga Puja mood.

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. Neither is it sweltering hot, nor unreasonably chilly. I feel lazy and excited at the same time, now that the Indian festive season is upon us. I can’t wait for October!

Meanwhile, here’s an almost “funky” pear fruit recipe, to make mid-morning a little fizzier.

The pears in our refrigerator have been ripening since last Tuesday. I know.

So I pulled a couple of them out. Poached ‘em in a lime-vanilla-cinnamon bath and added some fizz (which I honestly didn’t think would work)…but amazingly, it turned out yummy and fun!

Fizzy Pear fruit Drink (or soup, if you may) – Serves 2

- 2 medium sized pears

- 3 cloves

- 1 medium-sized cinnamon stick

- Half a pod of vanilla, bruised slightly (you could also use vanilla essence)

- Juice of 1 lime

- 2 cardamoms, flattened with your knife

- 2 tablespoons of honey or maple syrup

- 1 cup of water

- 7Up or Sprite to serve

Halve the pears and remove the seeds. I did not peel the skin off, but you can, of course, if you want. Set the water to simmer on low heat. Add the cloves, cinnamon, vanilla, lime juice, cardamoms and honey. Drop the pear halves in the simmering water, cut side down. Cover and cook on low heat for 10-15 minutes, or until the pears have softened considerably. Turn them over (skin-side down) and poach for another 10 minutes. Remove from heat and cool for a few minutes. Chill the fruit in the refrigerator. Cut the halves into thirds. Put them in a shot glass and fill it up with 7up or Sprite. Top with crushed ice (optional) and serve.

4 Comments

by Amrita on September 20, 2008 • Permalink

Posted in Desserts, Food & Drink

Tagged 7up, autumn, Bengali, cardamom, cinnamon, cold dessert, cold drinks, cold pear soup, cold soup, cook, cool, dessert, dhak, dhunuchi naach, drink, Durga Puja, fall seasons, fizzy, fizzy drinks, food, food photography, foods, fruit, fruit soup, fruity, fun drink, India, party drink, pears, Photography, poached fruit, poached pears, recipe, recipes, Sprite, sweet

Posted by Amrita on September 20, 2008

http://amritac.wordpress.com/2008/09/20/pears-for-autumn/

Coffee-Caramel Crème Mini-Puffs

The lazy afternoon stretched forever. I didn’t feel like putting down my book and pulling the curtains apart to let in the sun. But the room had become cold…it had been raining all morning. I had been craving creme puffs since an early breakfast, but had somehow resisted rushing off to the kitchen. Instead, I went through all the cookbooks looking up all the cream puff recipes. And I made these mini-puffs with a coffee creme filling and icing, for tea.

For the puffs I like using David Lebovitz’s recipe for pâte à choux, or Pierre Hermé’s choux recipe for his Chocolate Éclairs.

I added an extra tablespoon of confectioner’s sugar to make the mini-puffs sweeter.

Coffee Caramel Crème:

- Half cup heavy cream

- 3 tablespoons of brown sugar

- Half a teaspoon of freshly ground coffee (or espresso powder)

- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened

- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

- Half a teaspoon ground cinnamon

Bring the cream to a boil. Add the coffee, butter, vanilla essence and cinnamon and stir well. Remove from heat and let the mixture cool for five minutes. Meanwhile, melt the sugar in a bain-marie until it becomes toffee-like (I’m a certified expert in burning caramel at this point, but I’m sure you’ll be more careful!).

Add the caramel to the cream mixture and stir well. I like to keep the icing (or if you use it as a filling) a little swirly, but that depends on you really. Smother the mini-puffs in the creme and chill in the refrigerator for at least half an hour.

7 Comments

by Amrita on September 17, 2008 • Permalink

Posted in Baking, Desserts, Food & Drink, Photography

Tagged bake, baker, baking, coffee caramel creme, cook, cooking, cream caramel, cream puffs, creamy, dessert, desserts, eclairs, food, food photography, foodie, mini-puffs, photographs, Photography, pierre herme, quick snack, recipe, recipes, snacks, sweet, sweets, tea, vanilla essence

Posted by Amrita on September 17, 2008

http://amritac.wordpress.com/2008/09/17/coffee-caramel-creme-mini-puffs/

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